The present invention is generally directed to a video monitoring system apparatus and specifically directed to a video monitoring apparatus which employs a small video camera and light adjustably mounted on a headband and connected to a remote monitoring system by fiberoptic cable. Headbands equipped with video instruments are used extensively in the medical field for examinations and operations.
Current video headlight devices, some with microphone attachments, are employed so that the wearer can maintain a video record of an entire procedure for both teaching and litigation protection purposes. The video attachments, hitherto available, position the video camera adjacent to the headlight output lens, i.e. on separate axes from one another. The resulting parallax ensures that the camera's field of view and the illumination spot will mutually coincide at a fixed distance from the surgeon's head but progressively diverge as the surgeon's head moves closer to or further away from the present distance.
Fiberoptic cables for the illumination of surgical instruments, headlights, and microcopies are usually comprised of a silicone or other flexible jacket surrounding the optical fibers, with metallic ferrules at both ends to connect the cable to a light source and the appropriate surgical device.
One of the drawbacks of the compliant fiberoptic cable jacket or sheath has been its tendency to collapse under tight bending situations, so that the entrained optical fibers are pinched and strained to the breaking point, thus degrading their function. In the past, the solution to the problems arising from tight cable bends which are usually required adjacent to one or the other of the cable's ends, has been to replace the conventional right cylindrical metallic connector ferrule with a purposely bent metallic ferrule which will accomplish the desired cable bend angle while protecting the entrained fiberoptics from "pinch" damage.
The difficulty arising from this solution is that a multiplicity of cable ferrule designs must be kept on hand and the cables exchanged whenever the curvature requirement is changed. For example, a surgical headlight in the Direct mode will generally require the standard right cylindrical ferrule connector, but the Coaxial mode will cause the cable either to stand well of the wearer's head, so that it can interfere with other operative participants, or else be forced back close to the profile of the headlight and so run the risk of collapse and fiberoptic pinching. In the Coaxial case, therefore, it is expedient to employ the curved ferrule connected cable, thus provoking a laborious cable exchange. This procedure also incurs the expense of a separate cable. These and other difficulties experienced with the prior art video headlight and cable devices have been obviated by the present invention.
It is, therefore, a principal object of the present invention to provide a video headlight apparatus which would substantially eliminate the parallax-distance variable.
A further object of the present invention is the provision of a video headlight apparatus in which the illumination area is always substantially coaxial with the camera's field of view.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a fiberoptic cable connection for a video headlight system which is bendable without creating a kink in the optical fibers within the cable or otherwise damaging the fibers.
A still further object of the invention is the provision of a hermetically sealed fiberoptic cable connection for a video headlight system which is flexible but non-collapsible and enables the video camera and light to be moved at any angular position within a relatively wide range of angles.
Another object of the invention is the provision of a fiberoptic video camera apparatus which is versatile, reliable, easy to use and capable of extension use without damaging the optical fibers with the fiberoptic cable which is connected to the video camera.
With these and other objects in view, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the invention resides in the combination of parts set forth in the specification and covered by the claims appended hereto.